ProfessionalsMatthew W. Abbott
Tel: +1-212-373-3402
Fax: +1-212-492-0402
mabbott@paulweiss.com
mabbott@paulweiss.com
1285 Avenue of the Americas
New York,
NY
10019-6064
Fax: +1-212-492-0402
Matthew Abbott is a partner in the Corporate Department, global co-chair of the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group and a member of the Private Equity Group. He regularly represents strategic and private equity investors in public and private acquisitions and investments, divestitures, joint ventures and carve-out transactions.
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
In 2023, The American Lawyer named Matt a “Dealmaker of the Year” for his role advising Clearlake in its acquisition of Chelsea Football Club. Matt has been named a Law360 MVP in private equity three times, most recently in 2024. Matt is also recognized by Chambers USA and The Legal 500 for his M&A work on mega-deals and private equity buyouts. In 2022, he was featured as one of Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Dealmakers in America,” and was a finalist in 2020 for The American Lawyer’s “Corporate Lawyer of the Year.” Matt was also named to New York Law Journal’s list of “2013 Rising Stars,” which recognizes attorneys under the age of 40 who have “established a record of accomplishments and demonstrated that they are top contributors to the practice of law and their communities.” He has also been recognized as one of Investment Dealers’ Digest Magazine’s “40 Under 40,” a list compiled of some of the “best and brightest on Wall Street who are making their mark relatively early in their careers.”
EXPERIENCE
Matt's recent representations include advising:
- Agrium in its $36 billion merger of equals with Potash Corp., its $5 billion hostile bid for CF Industries, its $2.7 billion acquisition of UAP and its $1.2 billion acquisition of AWB
- AKQA in its sale to WPP
- Aperture, the parent company of online broker OptionsHouse, in its sale to E*TRADE
- Benevity, a portfolio company of General Atlantic, in a strategic investment by Hg
- Birch Hill Equity Partners in the $2.3 billion sale of Shred-It International to Stericycle Inc., and in its investment in Uni-Select Inc.
- Blackstone Growth in its investment in Oatly AB
- Brighton Park Capital in its:
- growth investment in OPSWAT
- alongside The Carlyle Group in its acquisition of a majority stake in Indegene
- acquisition of a majority stake in RocketReach
- Brookfield in its acquisition of a 50% stake of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice’s ownership interest in BrandSafway
- CareCore National in its merger with MedSolutions
- Citigroup in its acquisitions of First American Bank, a $3.5 billion financial institution, and payment processing company Ecount
- CLEAResult in its sale to TPG Growth and The Rise Fund
- Clearlake Capital Group in a consortium deal to acquire Chelsea Football Club
- Cornell Capital in its acquisition of World Kitchen
- Creative Planning in its minority investment from TPG Capital
- The special committee of Duck Creek Technologies’ board of directors in connection with Duck Creek’s $2.6 billion take-private sale to Vista Equity Partners
- Eldorado Gold in its $2 billion acquisition of Sino Gold
- Emdeon in its $3.1 billion sale to Blackstone
- EN Engineering in its sale to Kohlberg & Co.
- eviCore healthcare in its $3.6 billion sale to Express Scripts
- Farelogix in its proposed sale to Sabre Corporation, and in its sale to Accelya
- Francisco Partners and General Atlantic in their $1 billion agreement to acquire public semiconductor company Aeroflex (terminated during “go-shop” period)
- General Atlantic in more than 100 acquisitions, investments and divestitures involving its portfolio companies across multiple industry and geographical sectors, including:
- Business Services (Aimbridge, AppsFlyer, Arco Platform, Axioma, CLEAResult, Comprehensive Educational Services [ACES], Creative Planning, EN Engineering, Engility, Evisort, Financial Information Technologies, General Information Services, Gusto, Hibob, HighLevel, Kavak, Mu Sigma, Network Solutions, Quality Technology Services, Sierra Space, TriNet and Trow)
- Financial Services (Adyen, Albert, Amerherst Pierpont, Aperture, Avant Credit, BMF Bovespa, Bold, Branch, Chime, First Republic Bank, Futu, Getco, IHS Markit, ING’s Latin American Pension and Wealth Management Business, Insurity, Karvy Fintech Private Limited, KCG, Klar, Kyriba, Neon Pagamentos, Network International (Dubai), the NYSE, NYMEX, Santander, Talos and XP Investimentos)
- Healthcare (Adagene, Alignment Healthcare, Align Networks, Biofourmis, CareMetx, CinCor Pharma, Doctor On Demand, Emdeon, Equality Health, eviCore Healthcare, Flo Health, Hong Kong Asia Medical Holding Limited, Hutchison China MediTech, Landmark Health, Marathon Health, MedExpress, Oak Street Health, OneOncology, PANTHERx Rare, Qualicorp, Royalty Pharma and Sanfer)
- Internet and Technology (Acesso Digital, Airbnb, Alibaba, Alkami Technology, AppDynamics, Atera, Authentic Brands Group, Benevity, BuzzFeed, Certinia, Coupa Software, Crehana, Chess.com, Decolar.com, Delivery Hero, Devo Technology, Dice, Facebook, Fireblocks, Flipp, Gympass, Hemnet, Incode, Invoice Cloud, Jio Platforms, Klarna, Mollie, Peixe Urbano, Pendo.io, Property Finder, pymetrics, QI Tech, Quality Technology Services, QuintoAndar, Quizlet, Red Ventures, Riskified, Seismic, Session M, Slack, SnapAV, Snapchat, Sonendo, SPINS, Squarespace, The Meet Group, ThreatLocker, Tripleseat, Turbonomic, Uber, Vox Media and Yemek Sepeti)
- Retail and Consumer (Athletic Brewing Company, Barteca, Buff City Soap, European Wax Center, Fresha, Gilt, GoodVets Group, Grupo Axo, Jumei International, LiveMode, Mi9 Retail, Morphe, Pague Menos, Privalia, Reliance Retail Ventures, Studio Moderna, Too Faced Cosmetics, Torchy’s Tacos, Tory Burch and Vegamour)
- A consortium consisting of General Atlantic and Stone Point Capital, in their $1.65 billion take-private acquisition of HireRight Holdings Corporation
- General Atlantic in its acquisition of Actis
- General Atlantic in the $4 billion sale of its publicly traded portfolio company, EngageSmart, to Vista Equity Partners
- General Atlantic in its acquisition of a majority stake in Joe & the Juice
- General Atlantic in its $1.5 billion take-private acquisition of Arco Platform Limited
- General Atlantic and its portfolio company OneOncology in the $2.1 billion sale of the company to AmerisourceBergen and TPG
- General Atlantic in the $10.6 billion sale of its stake in its portfolio company Oak Street Health to CVS Health Corp.
- General Atlantic and its climate solutions investing venture BeyondNetZero in its investment in RoadRunner Recycling
- A consortium led by General Atlantic and including Blackstone Growth and ICONIQ Growth in a $1.5 billion investment in Articulate Global
- General Atlantic in its acquisition of Iron Park Capital to form General Atlantic Credit
- General Information Services and General Atlantic in GIS’s acquisition of HireRight
- Global Infrastructure Partners in its $15 billion acquisition (together with KKR) of CyrusOne
- The Government of Canada in the sale of its interests in Chrysler Group to Fiat SpA
- Greenfield Online in its “go-shop” process and sale to Microsoft
- KKR and General Atlantic in the $1.65 billion acquisition of TASC from Northrop Grumman
- Liberty Strategic Capital in its investment in BlueVoyant
- Maple Group Acquisition Corporation, a consortium of 13 leading Canadian financial institutions and pension funds, in its successful Cdn$3.8 billion unsolicited cash offer for the TMX Group, the owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange
- MacAndrews & Forbes in its acquisition of Clarke American from Honeywell International
- Marathon Health in its merger with Everside Health
- MedExpress in its sale to Optum, a division of UnitedHealth Group
- Network Solutions in its $1 billion sale to Web.com
- Oak Hill Capital and General Atlantic in their acquisition of Genpact from General Electric and subsequent $1 billion sale of Genpact to Bain Capital
- Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in its investments in TierPoint, US Farm Trust and Ascend Learning, and its sale of Ascend Learning to funds managed by Blackstone and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
- QTS Realty Trust in its $10 billion sale to Blackstone
- Roark Capital Group in its sales of Batteries Plus and Quala Wash; its investments in Culver Franchising System and Drybar; its acquisitions of Great Expressions Dental Centers, International Car Wash Group and Jimmy John’s; and the merger of Pet Valu and Pet Supermarket
- Sandler Capital Management in connection with the $2 billion sale of Xplornet Communications to Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners
- Silver Lake and General Atlantic in their acquisition of A Place for Mom, a portfolio company of Warburg Pincus
- SnapAV in its sale to affiliates of Hellman & Friedman
- SoftBank Vision Fund in its investment, alongside SoftBank Group, of up to $1 billion in Rappi
- Teck Resources in its $1.5 billion private placement to China Investment Corporation (CIC)
- Time Warner Cable in its:
- $58 billion bid for AT&T Broadband
- $9.8 billion restructuring of Time Warner Entertainment
- $3.6 billion sale of SpectrumCo (along with Comcast and Bright House) to Verizon Wireless
- $3.5 billion investment (along with Comcast, Google, Intel and Brighthouse) in Clearwire
- acquisition of 100% of ISP Road Runner from AT&T
- Too Faced Cosmetics in its $1.45 billion sale to The Estée Lauder Companies
- TPG Capital in its investment in G&A Partners
- TPG, Oaktree Capital Management and JH Investments in the $1.2 billion acquisition of Taylor Wimpey’s North American real estate operations
- Tricon Capital in its $1.4 billion acquisition of Silver Bay Realty Trust, a public REIT
- Tricon Residential in its $3.5 billion take-private sale to Blackstone Real Estate Partners X and Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust
- Tricon Residential in a PIPE investment in the company by a syndicate of investors led by Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust
- Vox Media in connection with a $200 million investment in the company by NBCUniversal
- Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic as lead consortium members in the $8.7 billion take-private of 58.com
- Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic in their €1.02 billion acquisition with of a 50% stake in Santander Asset Management
- Western Coal in its $3.3 billion stock and cash acquisition by Walter Energy
- Western Oil Sands in its $6.6 billion sale to Marathon Oil
- Wyndham International in its $3.2 billion sale to Blackstone
- YankeeNets in the sale of the New Jersey Nets and the New Jersey Devils and in the subsequent restructuring of the New York Yankees and the YES Entertainment Network